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Grilled Cuban Flank Steak

Flank steak is delicious when it's marinated in Cuban flavors and grilled, and this tasty flank steak is low-carb, gluten-free, South Beach Diet friendly, and can easily be Paleo with the right ingredients.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Cuban Flank Steak is one of my most-used ways to cook beef on the grill. If you're grilling for a beef-loving Dad this weekend, I can promise this will be a hit!)

In one of my previous lives, before I became a food blogger and a South Beach Dieter, I used to be president of my local teacher's association, aka the teacher's union. This was a demanding high-pressure job that I sometimes loved, sometimes hated, but one thing I did enjoy about the job was the chance to travel. I went all over the U.S., and it was in Miami Beach that I had my first experience with Cuban food. I loved the way beef and pork were marinated in lime juice in the Cuban cuisine, so a few years ago I tried to re-create that flavor in this flank steak. If you like flank steak, give this flavorful Cuban-style marinade a try!

You can't read the price, but this lean flank steak I got at my local market was a bargain. If you're making this for the South Beach Diet, remember the guideline to choose meat with less than 10% fat.

Put the steak in a Ziploc bag or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, pour in marinade, and marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours (or up to 24 hours.)

Let meat come to room temperature while you oil the grill and then preheat to medium high, then grill to desired temperature, 140-145 for medium rare or 155-160 for medium. (Flank steak is best when it's not cooked above medium. I use my Polder Digital Meat Timer to check the temperature.)

When meat is done, let it rest for 5-minutes before you slice it.

Cut meat into thin slices and serve with fresh lime pieces on the side to squeeze over the meat when you eat it. (I should have cut mine a little thinner!)

Combine marinade ingredients. Put flank steak into a ziploc bag and pour marinade in, seal bag, and marinate all day in refrigerator. (You can marinate up to 24 hours if desired.)

Take meat out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before grilling. Oil the grill with a paper towel dipped in olive or grapeseed oil, then preheat gas or charcoal barbecue grill to medium-high (you can only keep your hand there for a few seconds.)

Grill meat to desired doneness, approximately 4-5 minutes per side for rare to medium rare or 6 minutes for medium. I wouldn't cook flank steak more than medium or it will be tough. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your flank steak, the best way to judge the doneness is to use an instant-read meat thermometer, cooking to 140-145 for medium rare or 155-160 for medium. (The meat in the photo was cooked about 5 minutes per side.)

Remove meat from grill and let rest about 5 minutes. (You can cover with foil to keep it warm if needed.) Slice across the grain and serve hot, with slices of fresh lime to squeeze on the meat.

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

More Ideas with Flank Steak:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)

(Want even more recipes? I find these recipes from other blogs using Food Blog Search.)

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Kalyn,wow, what can I say, the beef is cooked to perfection! I'm totally hopeless in any beef dish (well, except Italian meat balls), now your recipe gives me a good start! Btw, I really love cumin.And a thank-you note to you, I just grilled the fish with the coriander source according to your recipe, it's splendid!

Gattina, your new grill must have arrived. I'm glad you like the Halibut with Garlic and Cilantro Sauce. I loved it. Now I might try the same recipe with oregano, since I have a lot of that in my garden surviving the frost.

Actually I know this is a few days old, but I just thought I'd let you know that I tried out this marinade on a steak I cooked for dinner last night, and it tasted great! It was really salty because I accidentally used garlic salt instead of garlic powder (oops), but fortunately I like salty food and I thought it was delish! Thanks!

I'm chuckling because I reposted this with new photos and just noticed there is a comment here complimenting me on the old photos (which were not horrible, but not great. And I'm not 100% happy with the new ones either!)

I am totally DROOLING over this recipe! I just started making flank steak recently and am now wondering what took me so long? Such a delicious cut of meat and so easy to prepare. Your recipe and photos look amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Kalyn-Cubans DO NOT eat chiles. Not one national dish contains anything hot in it. It is of personal choice when someone does. In fact the Habanero pepper is Mexican not Cuban as the name suggests. Everything else but the soy sauce is exactly authentic though. This is actually classic "Cuban Mojo"/"Mojo Criollo" (same thing). Mojo simply means sauce/dipping sauce in Spanish. Enjoy.

One can never have enough steak marinades! My son is not a beef eater, so when my daughter was little I just never gave her beef. When she was about 4 she had her first taste and her eye went wide with absolute pleasure! This will be right up her alley. Thanks!

We made this a few days ago and it was absolutely stellar. We upped the chipotle powder but that's the only change. Our result looked just like the pictures and tasted as good as it looked. Then, since we're overrun with tomatoes, we made a pico de gallo to go over it and we had peaches/cream corn on the cob. What a great meal. Thanks!

(Marcia, leaving your e-mail address in a blog comment is not a good idea unless you want a lot of spam e-mail, so I took it out. Kalyn)

This looks great, but before I try it out I wanted to know if this has a lot of fire behind it? I'm not that big on spicy and I was wondering if this would taste good without the hot sauce, or if you could recommend a nice flavorful substitute without a lot of heat.

Thanks for the recipe. Just made this tonight. Hubby and I enjoyed it.

I made a super big salad of romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots and blue cheese, and put the flank steak on top. It was delicious!

Also cheated on the marinade as I did not have any fresh limes at home...used lemon juice in a bottle instead.

It is definitely a repeat marinade!

Just finished marinating some chicken with your other marinade recipe(used the red wine vinegar instead, still have not had chance to go to the store to get me some white wine vinegar - will report back)!

Thanks Kalyn! I couldn't find flank steak at my locally owned grocery store so I asked the workers in the meat department about it and they said skirt steak! I was surprised at that answer because I do use it for fajitas! I live in New Mexico so of course they were out of skirt steak! Must have been a lot of fajitas made yesterday! Thanks for the info!

this recipe was awesome! i did mine with some shoulder steaks that i beat down with a meat mallet. also wrote a post about it and gave you credit for the recipe and a link to this page. thanks again! here's the link to my blog entry....

It wouldn't hurt to marinate flat iron steak in this marinade for a few hours, but flat iron doesn't really need to be marinated; it's much more tender than flank steak. Here is my favorite recipe for Flat Iron Steak.

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